loma linda >> The Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center is looking to “break down the silo” that separates it from the community as part of a pilot program hoping to reduce suicides among veterans, the hospital’s behavioral medicine chief said Wednesday.

This integration with other mental health community providers is vitally important because it’s estimated that about 75 percent of veterans nationwide are not registered with Veterans Affairs health services, said Dr. Marion Sherman, Behavioral Medicine Service chief for the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System, which includes the Loma Linda hospital and community clinics located in Blythe, Corona, Palm Desert, Rancho Cucamonga, Murrieta and Victorville.

Of the 240,000 veterans in the combined San Bernardino and Riverside county area, only about 70,000 are registered with the Loma Linda VA and less than 20,000 have received behavioral health services, Sherman said.

In addition to reducing veteran suicide rates, the program also hopes to mitigate other destructive aspects of depression and post-traumatic stress that can lead to job loss, marriage breakups and substance abuse, Sherman said.

Newly released data from the federal government’s largest analysis of veteran suicides indicate that in 2014, an average of 20 veterans a day died from suicide, down from 22 in 2010.

The Loma Linda VA hospital is the regional lead hospital in this pilot program, Sherman said.

VA hospitals in Long Beach and Los Angeles also are participating in the effort, she added.

Recently added to the region were the states of Arizona and New Mexico, and as a result, the VA hospital in Phoenix will be a participant as will the VA hospital in Las Vegas, which was in the Southern California region until recently, Sherman said.

If the pilot programs initiated in this area and a few others are viewed as successful, then the program will be rolled out nationwide, she said.

As part of organizing that outreach, the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System will host a mental health summit with community partners to focus on suicide prevention and access of care to veterans.

The summit will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 31 in the VA Loma Linda Medical Center Auditorium.

Partners for the event include Wounded Warrior Project; Orenda House; FrontSight Military Outreach; UC Riverside; Disabled American Veterans Chapter 12 – San Bernardino; plus chambers of commerce, business organizations and other community groups.

The purpose of the summit and the pilot program is to learn how to “connect the dots” between services and the veterans who do not register with the VA.

The outreach effort is part of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for Americans Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in February 2015.

The legislation was among several initiatives in the aftermath of the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki in May 2014, following allegations that VA workers in some locations around the country concealed how long patients waited to see doctors.

Shinseki was replaced by <URL destination=”http://http://www.sbsun.com/government-and-politics/20150127/veterans-affairs-secretary-robert-mcdonald-stops-in-loma-linda”>Bob McDonald, a former Procter & Gamble chairman, president and CEO.

</URL>Clay Hunt was a decorated Marine from Houston who committed suicide in 2011 at age 28. He had served with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan and struggled with depression and post-traumatic stress after he came home, says the White House website.

In Afghanistan, Hunt served with a unit from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.

Derrick Bush, 40, a San Bernardino resident who like Hunt served with a Marine combat unit in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the summit, and the effort to draw a more diverse group in the effort to help veterans, is “a step in the right direction.”

“As far as I can see, funding for the pilot program is not sufficient to put together something that is meaningful,” said Richard Valdez, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans in California and past commander for the DAV’s San Bernardino chapter and a past state commander of DAV.

“The act itself is on the right track,” Valdez said. “The problem is immediate and funding should be immediate.”

• 65 percent of all veteran deaths by suicide in 2014 were 50 years or older.

• Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for veterans.

• Since 2001, the suicide rate among U.S. veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent while the rate of suicide among veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent.

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